Research Question: What are the effects of standardized tests, including funding, incentives, and punishments? Author: Lia Moceri
1. Stimulating Reform : Race to the Top, Competitive Grants and the Obama Education Agenda Scholarly Article
In this scholarly article, the author, Patrick McGuinn details important aspects of the Race to the Top program implemented by President Barack Obama, including focus on teacher accountability and funding, both of which are dependent on test scores. Though this piece of legislation is said to have changed the role of the federal government in education completely and avoid some of the failures of the No Child Left Behind Act developed in the previous administration, Race to the Top and its emphasis and dependency on standardized tests is not the end to all educational problems. On the school level, each child, teacher, and administrator is judged based upon the scores of the students. These scores, taken on one day and testing only a select few subjects, are the scale by which teachers are judged and depend effective or ineffective. A teacher deemed ineffective given his/her students scores risks job termination. However, not only are the teachers accountable, but also the administrators, whose schools are threatened by closure or privatization. Despite the already heavy weight test scores have on individual schools and teachers within the system, the ramifications and conditions do not stop there.
Under Race to the Top, states are participants in a competitive grant program, the largest in competitive grant history. In order to receive large amounts of government funding for a state, it must apply and agree to enact certain changes in policy. While some consider it coercion into adopting federal mandates, other consider the funding simply incentives for following the national governments lead in education reform. Though it is said to be more effective than other types of grant programs, Race to the Top "deliver(s) grant money to states" but does "not provide the department(s) with tools for enforcement. Regardless of this fact, the first two states to receive grants, Delaware and Tennessee, received $100 million and $500 million respectively. In the second round Rhode Island was also able to receive money in the award process. Despite the seemingly threatening and negative nature of this program, it has lead to 34 policy changes among states, and wether for better or worse, it is unifying the educational policies of the country, states, districts, and even schools based on standardized testing.
In response to this article, I begin to question the federal government's knowledge of the public schools systems true workings. Since the basis of the program is testing, the quantitative, easy to obtain results seem to be the point of emphasis. Sadly, this means basing teachers efficacy and a school's success on information that cannot accurately capture the information they seek. Success, learning, and teaching are all based upon much more than a single test. it is further concerning that the money received to improve is based on ones willingness to comply with higher mandates, instead of allowing states to find their own ways to improve using this funding, especially since money is so necessary for a state or districts educational survival. For Rhode Island, their receiving of the Race to the Top funding is essential to school district progress. With this money, the RI Department of Education plans to spend it on better teacher evaluations, implementation of standards, development of common curricula, better data systems, resources for new teachers, and support to low performing schools. Also, Race to the Top heavily emphasized and awards states with growing amounts of charter schools, of which Rhode Island has sixteen.
McGuinn, P. (2012). Stimulating Reform: Race to the Top, Competitive Grants and the Obama Education Agenda. Educational Policy, 26(1), 136-159.
2. Test Results and Drive-By Evaluations Editorial
This editorial, written by Thomas Toch, discusses his view on the New York City education system. The largest school system in the country uses test scores and one classroom evaluation to judge their teachers. Toch believes very strongly that single classroom visits and one day tests are not nearly enough to determine the performance of a teacher. According to him, they are simply used because they are inexpensive and easy to administer and supposedly measures achievement. However, many of the teachers being affected by these tests do not teach the few subjects or low level skills encompassed by the meaningless standardized tests. These tests do not seperate the outside influences of a child from the influence of their teachers. Also, they do not match with individual evaluations. Of the New York schools 88% claimed to have no unsatisfactory teachers, when according to testing, 69 schools of this 88% were deemed failing because of standardized test scores which are supposedly reflective of ineffective teachers. Toch proposes a more full evaluation of teacher performance, an analysis of how a teachers plans, teaches, tests, manages and motivates. Though this examination is more labor intensive and expensive, it might be the kind of true evaluation school systems across the country need to attract the best and brightest to the teaching profession and truly improve the school systems and career happiness of teachers.
Thomas Toch, I believe, is justified in many of his ideas about standardized testing and its effects. It is unjust to judge a person and how well they do their job based on one set of numbers. When dealing with business, this quantitative approach works, however when dealing with the development and education of our country's youth, I believe more care should be taken to ensure that those doing their job correctly are not wrongly punished. Without a doubt high teaching standards are important, but there is a distinct difference in how they should and are being assessed. According to the American Teacher Federation;s website n Rhode Island, as well as most other states across the country, teacher's unions constantly desire a kind of assessment that looks at more than just a score, and is more inclusive of their classroom atmosphere and results, not just one test score
Toch, T. (2008). Test Results and Drive-By Evaluations. Education Week,27(26), 28-29.
3. Point: Standardized Testing is the best Way to Establish Education Standards 4. Counterpoint: National Education Standards Overlook Individuals and Local Communities. Analysis
These analyses focus on two sides of the standardized testing debate. The first article details the benefits of implementing and emphasizing national standards. The author argues that national standards and testing set clear standards and goals for generations as well as providing a method of comparison. According to the authors, standardized testing "proven to be one of the most successful tools for not only measuring successes and failures, but also for setting forth clear and unmistakable standards for teachers and students." In an analysis of the schools across the country entitled "A Nation at Risk", it deemed the school systems a wreck and the basics of education were apparently lost. This would require the revamping of the educational system through No Child Left Behind which stressed accountability and testing. On the other hand, the opposing article, asserts that standards are impersonal and inconclusive. Even though it is the way we commonly assess American classrooms, there is no room for uniqueness or differences in learning style. These narrow qualitative assessments are coerce schools to teach to the test and force the standards upon them. It causes firings to teachers and administrators and loss of funding to bad results. It should only be used as one aspect in performance measurement. In general, these two articles displayed the controversiality of this issue and the reason standardized testing is such a topic for debate among legislators and teachers.
In general, these analyses are very informative given they show both sides of the controversial standardized testing push. I can more understand why legislators see appeal in the standardized testing, with its uniformity, easiness to obtain, and lower price. Given the economy the monetary concern for proper assessment is very rational. However, it is still unfortunate that good analyses of teaching and student success in this country are not being used because of a lack of funds or laziness. Also, the idea of unifying each student on the same standards and comparing them on the same scale is appealing, since it is a way to judge each state, district, and school without equating different sets of data. On the other hand, reducing each child to only a number seems unfair. Hard working teachers and administrators that lose jobs because of this accountability system are being neglected the job security they need and the opportunity to improve on their teaching methods and reedem themselves as teachers after being unjustly accused of being ineffective.
Badertscher, E. (2011). Counterpoint: National Education Standards Overlook Individuals and Local Communities. Points Of View: Standardized Testing, 3.
Witherbee, A. B. (2011). Point: Standardized Testing is the best Way to Establish Education Standards. Points Of View: Standardized Testing, 2.
5. Revising No Child Left Behind Summary
In this summary article, the authors discuss the revision of the No Child Left Behind Act by President Barack Obama and Arne Duncan, his Secretary of Education, and some of the controversial aspects of this piece of legislation. The first aspect examined wether states should adopt the "common core standards" for English and math proposed by the national government. These standards could unify the country and gain some states more Title I funds, but they would also cause more spending within states since the tools and resources to implement them are not given. Many believe that these nationwide standards and testing don't truly measure "growth of individual students" nor do they actually improve student achievement or reward schools that succeed in following the standards or raising scores. Also, this article analyzed the question of whether the education department should focus on just the lowest performing schools. According to the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, 32,000 schools nation wide are deemed failing. However, the scale by which they are rated, a measurement of yearly progress, has been considered inconclusive by many professionals and no longer considered to be based on research that adequately encompasses a schools ability to educate. Regardless of wether their judgement is sound, the schools that are deemed failing are threatened with cut-throat consequences like closing, charter school conversion, or immediate staff replacement instead of receiving the help they need to improve. Diane Ravitch expressed that schools and teachers who need improvement should be helped, not killed. The last aspect this article highlights is the amount of accountability forced upon teachers by the government. While the No Child Left Behind Act claimed that schools were the ones responsible for poor performance on tests and in class. However, Obama and his team behind the Race to the Top legislation claimed that failures, based on one days examinations, is the responsibility of the teachers. As a result, teachers must take valuable class time to teach precisely to the test. In general, this article asserts that while the government is providing $4.35 billion of stimulus money for competitive grants to states under certain conditions, the over emphasis on standardized tests is hurting the education system overall.
This article like many of the others I analyzed, highlights the unfairness of the accountability and standardized testing systems. However, this article explicitly mentions Rhode Island in scandal at the "chronically underperforming Central Falls High School" when the school board fired all 93 staff members of this school for opposing the addition of twenty-five minutes onto the school day. This mass firing was outwardly supported by Barack Obama who said teachers who fail their students should be held accountable. Obama and his Race to the Top program are also heavily in favor of charter schools which evoke both a sense of independence and involvement by the community, parents, students, and teachers. There was such a push in the charter movement that, that despite their mixed success rates, schools with failed progress on standardized tests had the option to convert to a charter school and if a state added more charter schools, they would receive higher priority in grant distribution.
I learned from my research that standardized testing carries a lot of weight in the education world today. Each students ability to achieve or not achieve proficiency determines dozens of things about the future of a school, district, or state. Proficiency on standardized tests or a states ability to comply with testing mandates determines the amount of funding each state receives from the government. Proficiency determines wether each school makes yearly progress in the eyes of the federal government. The scores determine who keeps jobs and who is fired. They determine what schools are closed, converted, or taken over. These score determine so many things, and yet they are not even found to be accurate, complete analyses of student success and teacher efficacy. It is concerning as a future teacher to think that my performance will be judged on a one day test, mostly focusing on subjects that I would not even teach. I would like to think more would be considered before I am deemed effective or ineffective. However, I am also now able to recognize the importance of standardized testing in that it is universal across the country or certain regions and it is aimed to look at a students knowledge.
Relevance in Rhode Island Schools
In Rhode Island, the effects and components of the education reform based on standardized testing are prominent. For example, Rhode Island was one of ten states to receive Race to the Top funding in the second round of the competitive grant system, vowing to use the money to implement better standards, testing, and data systems. Also, Central Falls, Rhode Island, with chronically low test scores, felt the sting of the teacher accountability aspect of testing when the school board fired 93 teachers after the proposed extended school day, an attempt to raise scores, was met by teacher resistance. While Obama commended the school board in making sure teachers knew they were responsible for student failures. Furthermore, many Rhode Island school districts are taking NECAP proficiency into consideration for graduation requirements, giving the tests more weight and importance to students.
Relevance to Charter Schools
Charter school, with mixed success rates, are favored in recent reforms that emphasize test scores. While they are still judged based on scoring, charter schools are in general more favored as a break from the traditional public school system. One of the approved solutions to fixing a test-failing school is to convert it into a charter school. Also, the more charter schools a state has, the more funding they receive to put towards better teacher evaluations (in addition to testing), implementation of national standards, development of common curricula, better data systems, resources for new teachers, and support to low performing schools.
Author: Lia Moceri
1. Stimulating Reform : Race to the Top, Competitive Grants and the Obama Education Agenda
Scholarly Article
In this scholarly article, the author, Patrick McGuinn details important aspects of the Race to the Top program implemented by President Barack Obama, including focus on teacher accountability and funding, both of which are dependent on test scores. Though this piece of legislation is said to have changed the role of the federal government in education completely and avoid some of the failures of the No Child Left Behind Act developed in the previous administration, Race to the Top and its emphasis and dependency on standardized tests is not the end to all educational problems. On the school level, each child, teacher, and administrator is judged based upon the scores of the students. These scores, taken on one day and testing only a select few subjects, are the scale by which teachers are judged and depend effective or ineffective. A teacher deemed ineffective given his/her students scores risks job termination. However, not only are the teachers accountable, but also the administrators, whose schools are threatened by closure or privatization. Despite the already heavy weight test scores have on individual schools and teachers within the system, the ramifications and conditions do not stop there.
Under Race to the Top, states are participants in a competitive grant program, the largest in competitive grant history. In order to receive large amounts of government funding for a state, it must apply and agree to enact certain changes in policy. While some consider it coercion into adopting federal mandates, other consider the funding simply incentives for following the national governments lead in education reform. Though it is said to be more effective than other types of grant programs, Race to the Top "deliver(s) grant money to states" but does "not provide the department(s) with tools for enforcement. Regardless of this fact, the first two states to receive grants, Delaware and Tennessee, received $100 million and $500 million respectively. In the second round Rhode Island was also able to receive money in the award process. Despite the seemingly threatening and negative nature of this program, it has lead to 34 policy changes among states, and wether for better or worse, it is unifying the educational policies of the country, states, districts, and even schools based on standardized testing.
In response to this article, I begin to question the federal government's knowledge of the public schools systems true workings. Since the basis of the program is testing, the quantitative, easy to obtain results seem to be the point of emphasis. Sadly, this means basing teachers efficacy and a school's success on information that cannot accurately capture the information they seek. Success, learning, and teaching are all based upon much more than a single test. it is further concerning that the money received to improve is based on ones willingness to comply with higher mandates, instead of allowing states to find their own ways to improve using this funding, especially since money is so necessary for a state or districts educational survival. For Rhode Island, their receiving of the Race to the Top funding is essential to school district progress. With this money, the RI Department of Education plans to spend it on better teacher evaluations, implementation of standards, development of common curricula, better data systems, resources for new teachers, and support to low performing schools. Also, Race to the Top heavily emphasized and awards states with growing amounts of charter schools, of which Rhode Island has sixteen.
McGuinn, P. (2012). Stimulating Reform: Race to the Top, Competitive Grants and the Obama Education Agenda. Educational Policy, 26(1), 136-159.
2. Test Results and Drive-By Evaluations
Editorial
This editorial, written by Thomas Toch, discusses his view on the New York City education system. The largest school system in the country uses test scores and one classroom evaluation to judge their teachers. Toch believes very strongly that single classroom visits and one day tests are not nearly enough to determine the performance of a teacher. According to him, they are simply used because they are inexpensive and easy to administer and supposedly measures achievement. However, many of the teachers being affected by these tests do not teach the few subjects or low level skills encompassed by the meaningless standardized tests. These tests do not seperate the outside influences of a child from the influence of their teachers. Also, they do not match with individual evaluations. Of the New York schools 88% claimed to have no unsatisfactory teachers, when according to testing, 69 schools of this 88% were deemed failing because of standardized test scores which are supposedly reflective of ineffective teachers. Toch proposes a more full evaluation of teacher performance, an analysis of how a teachers plans, teaches, tests, manages and motivates. Though this examination is more labor intensive and expensive, it might be the kind of true evaluation school systems across the country need to attract the best and brightest to the teaching profession and truly improve the school systems and career happiness of teachers.
Thomas Toch, I believe, is justified in many of his ideas about standardized testing and its effects. It is unjust to judge a person and how well they do their job based on one set of numbers. When dealing with business, this quantitative approach works, however when dealing with the development and education of our country's youth, I believe more care should be taken to ensure that those doing their job correctly are not wrongly punished. Without a doubt high teaching standards are important, but there is a distinct difference in how they should and are being assessed. According to the American Teacher Federation;s website n Rhode Island, as well as most other states across the country, teacher's unions constantly desire a kind of assessment that looks at more than just a score, and is more inclusive of their classroom atmosphere and results, not just one test score
Toch, T. (2008). Test Results and Drive-By Evaluations. Education Week,27(26), 28-29.
3. Point: Standardized Testing is the best Way to Establish Education Standards
4. Counterpoint: National Education Standards Overlook Individuals and Local Communities.
Analysis
These analyses focus on two sides of the standardized testing debate. The first article details the benefits of implementing and emphasizing national standards. The author argues that national standards and testing set clear standards and goals for generations as well as providing a method of comparison. According to the authors, standardized testing "proven to be one of the most successful tools for not only measuring successes and failures, but also for setting forth clear and unmistakable standards for teachers and students." In an analysis of the schools across the country entitled "A Nation at Risk", it deemed the school systems a wreck and the basics of education were apparently lost. This would require the revamping of the educational system through No Child Left Behind which stressed accountability and testing. On the other hand, the opposing article, asserts that standards are impersonal and inconclusive. Even though it is the way we commonly assess American classrooms, there is no room for uniqueness or differences in learning style. These narrow qualitative assessments are coerce schools to teach to the test and force the standards upon them. It causes firings to teachers and administrators and loss of funding to bad results. It should only be used as one aspect in performance measurement. In general, these two articles displayed the controversiality of this issue and the reason standardized testing is such a topic for debate among legislators and teachers.
In general, these analyses are very informative given they show both sides of the controversial standardized testing push. I can more understand why legislators see appeal in the standardized testing, with its uniformity, easiness to obtain, and lower price. Given the economy the monetary concern for proper assessment is very rational. However, it is still unfortunate that good analyses of teaching and student success in this country are not being used because of a lack of funds or laziness. Also, the idea of unifying each student on the same standards and comparing them on the same scale is appealing, since it is a way to judge each state, district, and school without equating different sets of data. On the other hand, reducing each child to only a number seems unfair. Hard working teachers and administrators that lose jobs because of this accountability system are being neglected the job security they need and the opportunity to improve on their teaching methods and reedem themselves as teachers after being unjustly accused of being ineffective.
Badertscher, E. (2011). Counterpoint: National Education Standards Overlook Individuals and Local Communities. Points Of View: Standardized Testing, 3.
Witherbee, A. B. (2011). Point: Standardized Testing is the best Way to Establish Education Standards. Points Of View: Standardized Testing, 2.
5. Revising No Child Left Behind
Summary
In this summary article, the authors discuss the revision of the No Child Left Behind Act by President Barack Obama and Arne Duncan, his Secretary of Education, and some of the controversial aspects of this piece of legislation. The first aspect examined wether states should adopt the "common core standards" for English and math proposed by the national government. These standards could unify the country and gain some states more Title I funds, but they would also cause more spending within states since the tools and resources to implement them are not given. Many believe that these nationwide standards and testing don't truly measure "growth of individual students" nor do they actually improve student achievement or reward schools that succeed in following the standards or raising scores. Also, this article analyzed the question of whether the education department should focus on just the lowest performing schools. According to the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act, 32,000 schools nation wide are deemed failing. However, the scale by which they are rated, a measurement of yearly progress, has been considered inconclusive by many professionals and no longer considered to be based on research that adequately encompasses a schools ability to educate. Regardless of wether their judgement is sound, the schools that are deemed failing are threatened with cut-throat consequences like closing, charter school conversion, or immediate staff replacement instead of receiving the help they need to improve. Diane Ravitch expressed that schools and teachers who need improvement should be helped, not killed. The last aspect this article highlights is the amount of accountability forced upon teachers by the government. While the No Child Left Behind Act claimed that schools were the ones responsible for poor performance on tests and in class. However, Obama and his team behind the Race to the Top legislation claimed that failures, based on one days examinations, is the responsibility of the teachers. As a result, teachers must take valuable class time to teach precisely to the test. In general, this article asserts that while the government is providing $4.35 billion of stimulus money for competitive grants to states under certain conditions, the over emphasis on standardized tests is hurting the education system overall.
This article like many of the others I analyzed, highlights the unfairness of the accountability and standardized testing systems. However, this article explicitly mentions Rhode Island in scandal at the "chronically underperforming Central Falls High School" when the school board fired all 93 staff members of this school for opposing the addition of twenty-five minutes onto the school day. This mass firing was outwardly supported by Barack Obama who said teachers who fail their students should be held accountable. Obama and his Race to the Top program are also heavily in favor of charter schools which evoke both a sense of independence and involvement by the community, parents, students, and teachers. There was such a push in the charter movement that, that despite their mixed success rates, schools with failed progress on standardized tests had the option to convert to a charter school and if a state added more charter schools, they would receive higher priority in grant distribution.
Jost, K. (2010, April 16). Revising no child left behind. CQ Researcher, 20, 337-360. Retrieved from http://0-library.cqpress.com.helin.uri.edu/cqresearcher/
Overall Reaction to Your Research
I learned from my research that standardized testing carries a lot of weight in the education world today. Each students ability to achieve or not achieve proficiency determines dozens of things about the future of a school, district, or state. Proficiency on standardized tests or a states ability to comply with testing mandates determines the amount of funding each state receives from the government. Proficiency determines wether each school makes yearly progress in the eyes of the federal government. The scores determine who keeps jobs and who is fired. They determine what schools are closed, converted, or taken over. These score determine so many things, and yet they are not even found to be accurate, complete analyses of student success and teacher efficacy. It is concerning as a future teacher to think that my performance will be judged on a one day test, mostly focusing on subjects that I would not even teach. I would like to think more would be considered before I am deemed effective or ineffective. However, I am also now able to recognize the importance of standardized testing in that it is universal across the country or certain regions and it is aimed to look at a students knowledge.Relevance in Rhode Island Schools
In Rhode Island, the effects and components of the education reform based on standardized testing are prominent. For example, Rhode Island was one of ten states to receive Race to the Top funding in the second round of the competitive grant system, vowing to use the money to implement better standards, testing, and data systems. Also, Central Falls, Rhode Island, with chronically low test scores, felt the sting of the teacher accountability aspect of testing when the school board fired 93 teachers after the proposed extended school day, an attempt to raise scores, was met by teacher resistance. While Obama commended the school board in making sure teachers knew they were responsible for student failures. Furthermore, many Rhode Island school districts are taking NECAP proficiency into consideration for graduation requirements, giving the tests more weight and importance to students.Relevance to Charter Schools
Charter school, with mixed success rates, are favored in recent reforms that emphasize test scores. While they are still judged based on scoring, charter schools are in general more favored as a break from the traditional public school system. One of the approved solutions to fixing a test-failing school is to convert it into a charter school. Also, the more charter schools a state has, the more funding they receive to put towards better teacher evaluations (in addition to testing), implementation of national standards, development of common curricula, better data systems, resources for new teachers, and support to low performing schools.